Battle Report - Impromptu game with Will

There's quite a bit of burn out from the recent Saturday tournament hosted by the club, so the Monday night club population was a bit sparse. Still, there's almost always a game to be had. Will was the only gent not engaged in a game, and I've been interested in battling his chaos army. As it so happened Will wasn't expecting to play, but fortunately had 1750 points rolling around to play. While they weren't the Chaos, they were Space Marines, a-ok by me. He furiously dry brushed his bases, and with super glue still curing the game begins.

On this game both Will and I were testing concepts. Will was testing his Deathwing... Will it work? Can he drop in and get up close and personal with many squads of Terminators? He's got a lot of missile launchers ready to rock, and with the ability to ignore damage from me at 2+/3++ is going to do quite well against most anything. His speeders and predators are going to be roaming around as well, but they're more "standard" issue so I should be good... Right?




On my end I've got my standard issue list. My new test was to put Illuminor Szeras into play. I'd take away one cryptek with an Eldrich Lance, boost one group of warriors to a headcount of 20 and see what love he can give to them. (Roll the d6, a 1-2 Toughness goes to 5, a 3-4 Balistic Skill goes to 5, a 5-6 nets me Strength 5) With visions of 40 dice rolling 2s to hit dancing in my head game begins. Of course I roll a 5, so now I have the strongest non-assault worthy unit ever... But that's ok. :)

Table quarters for deployment, Seize Ground for the game type. Four objectives are placed on the board. Will fails to seize the initiative and we deploy. I like quarter table deployment since I often represent a fairly strong weapon array from the get-go, even if deep striking occurs around me (which it does, a lot in this game.)
I have all units save my monolith on the board, getting the scarabs warmed up in front which was a bit daring, but I wanted to be a little more aggressive.  Will deploys all his units tucked behind the terrain, and starts making room for his deep strikes which he is very daring about.

Since his terminators are arriving from reserve on deployment they are considered "arriving from reserve" according to Zahndrahk's Phased Reinforcements rules. There was some discussion but ultimately it was decided that the monolith would come down via deep strike as soon as Will had completed his terminator deep strikes. Will begins deploying and as mentioned is daring placing terminators four and five inches from table edge, and literally touching terrain pieces. With some luck from the dice Gods he lands everything except one group of Terminators who are "lost to the warp" on the table. The monolith lands dead center of the table and angled for maximum shooting arcs.

First turn has me spawning a bunch of scarabs, and moving fast, eschewing shooting of the whole army for mobility from the perspective of getting those vehicles to stop shooting.  The monolith starts the shooting round nicely... four gauss arcs are a lot of opportunity to at the very least stop his shooting capability. A series of very lucky rolls stop his ability to shoot with one land speeder and two predators, a significant boon. The eldrich lances start shooting into the terminators who are squatting on the objective, and while their save protects them from being removed from play, the tremorstave has Will nervous. The quake makes his next move difficult, and the writhing worldscape has a dangerous terrain check. Will's not going to make that risk.

Will starts his first turn and pelts the monolith with a melta shot, his only shot that does anything to the army. My particle whip is removed, but it's ok, the gauss is what I'm interested in. 12 shots pouring out, plus mobility of taking anything from the table or reserve to the monolith door is a good deal. His next moves have a lot of missile shots coming at all vehicles, and he's keen on that Annihilation barge with it's tesla destructor. He pours everything he's got into it, and my plastic dice magnet works like a charm, the poor guy rolls a lot of misses. The barge stays up despite some serious firepower.

Second turn the monolith peppers everything effectively shutting down nearly all of Will's fire power. Almost all vehicles succumb in one form or another to a "cannot shoot" condition, with some immobilization rolls as well. His terminators start marching into position to hold objectives, but the tremorstave quake effect and difficult terrain keep his movement in check. Will rolls his last terminator squad in, but a mishap has me place them in the farthest corner possible. It was the only thing available since the table was certainly full! What Will does have, he shoots and completes the job on the Annihilation barge making a crater. Along his previous line of attack he now focuses on the Immortals with Tesla carbines cutting three down, but the leadership and reanimation protocols mean only one leaves the table out of ten.

Third turn goes nearly identical to the second, however the scarabs now number ten bases and are in range for the vehicles which they start working on, a predator is consumed under a hail of "nom nom" and the scarabs are prepared for their next wave of reinforcement since now the portal of the monolith has pushed out spyders to be in range of the scarabs, but it will have to wait for next turn to work. The C'tan is now making his movement and shooting count towards contesting the objective Will is holding, while the Immortals issue from the portal now to grab another objective, and another barrage makes most of Will's army no longer able to shoot, but not immobile so turbo boosting begins in a rush to contest objectives. What can shoot is all shooting at the C'tan, if it goes down Will stands a perfect shot to pull a draw for the game. A group of 20 warriors holds another objective uncontested so the points are two to the necrons, two to the Space Marines.

The fourth turn starts with the C'tan floating through the debris and dust surrounding him from the shots that ricochet off and onto the ground around him. The monolith again sprays gauss and further immobilize and prevent shooting, but the dice are starting to run dry on my decent run, and misses start happening. All the Crypteks apparently found items on and around the ground around the Space Marines far more sporting and start shooting walls, rocks on the ground and generally are very happy to shoot six inches of target for the fun of watching ants have the quake rules apply. Fortunately a good roll gets the C'tan right in range and the Assaults start on the terminators, the objective contested. The Immortals also move into position over for my second objective and Will is going to make them run. All of Will's firepower is now on the Immortals that can be, four out of seven drop, and I luck out on both leadership and reanimation rolls. Only two Immortals leave the table, next time I'll have someone with a rez orb tagging along. Will's terminators attempt to take on the C'tan but are unable to affect him.

Fifth turn has the Necrons fully on objectives and beginning to take serious shots on the terminators on the fourth and final objective. Can he be run off? Hell no, Will doesn't mess around, and he rolls serious heat making all his saves, sometimes up to 15! There was quite a bit of hooting and hollering at his great luck, and by now it's on, he's going to run off those Immortals, but again, no love, they make their saves.

We roll to see if the game goes on, but a 2 finishes the bout.
Necrons 2 Will's Deathwing 1

Two things go without saying, Necrons and Space Marines can make a spectacular fight, and beyond a doubt if you have the pleasure of playing Will you will quickly find him not only a capable opponent, but a seriously truly friendly player. Will often wins "Most friendly opponent" and won that award on our impromtu game as well. To you sir I tip my Necron party hat! Thanks for a good game :)